Page 114 of Tangled Emotions

“When the movie’s over I’ll carry him to bed. I wanna see how it ends.”

Laughing softly, I sat back. We stayed there like a family for the rest of the movie and true to his word, when it ended, he picked my son up and carried him to bed. I followed and kissed his forehead before tucking the blanket around him.

Once we made it back to the living room, Frank pulled me close and kissed me deep. “I want to stay, but I’m going to be a gentleman and go.”

“What if I want you to stay?”

“We’ll figure things out.” He cupped my face. “I love you.”

I covered his hands with mine and pressed a kiss to the base of his thumb. “Thank you for tonight.”

Frank kissed me goodbye and left, leaving me breathless with three words I couldn’t say.

Frank

I’ve spent the last month with Edie and Matt. She always had funny stories after work, and she loved hearing about my day with the kids.

Matt and I found our groove after school. He liked hanging out with me until Edie got off work. Sometimes we hung out with the other kids at the park, but today I had something special planned.

Today we were going to have a man to man talk.

When the final bell rang, chaos ensued and kids of all sizes ran through the halls like maniacs. It was the start of Christmas break and not one teacher stopped them because we all wanted out as bad as they did.

“Doc!” Matt came running through the gym into my arms for a hug. “Guess what?”

“An alien landed on the playground, and you were the first to know?”

He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Did you start day drinking?”

Bending over, I burst out laughing. “Sorry, bud, what?”

“I won the math tournament in my class, and I got a family package to go to the movies!”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Yeah. So, you and me and mom can go.” He bounced in place.

“I’m hungry. Let’s go grab some lunch.”

“Are we going to the diner?” He walked along beside me.

“Not this time. I have a place I’d like you to see.”

“Sounds good.”

“Let’s go.”

We walked out to the car, and I made my way through a drive-thru, grabbing us some tacos for lunch when we got to my house.

He’s unusually quiet as we made our way to the door. Unlocking it, I opened the door and let him go first.

“Whoa! Look at that TV!” His eyes almost popped out of his head at the size of it.

“Better to play video games on and watch movies.”

“Totally.”

“Come on in the kitchen.” I carried the food into the room and set it up at the small table near the windows. “Have a seat, son.”

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